1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing system, an image processing apparatus, and an image processing program product, and more specifically to an image processing system suited for transmitting and receiving data among a plurality of image processing apparatuses connected to a network, an image processing apparatus, and an image processing program product executed by the image processing apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, an image processing apparatus such as a scanner, a printer, or a facsimile is commonly used in the form of being connected to a network. In such form of use, as a technology for allowing the sharing of data among a plurality of image processing apparatuses, Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 10-42114 describes a copying machine management system consisting of a plurality of digital copying machines connected to a communication line and of a single server, wherein the server includes an image file directory having an image file for storing image data transmitted from each digital copying machine and a client directory having a reception header management file for storing management data related to image data created and to be received by each of the digital copying machines, and upon reception, the digital copying machine periodically accesses the reception header management file of its own client directory of the server to confirm whether there is any image data to be received, and if there is such image data to be received, accesses the image file directory and takes in the relevant image data.
With the copying machine management system according to Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 10-42114, however, the server is required to be connected to a network. Thus, in such a case as where a digital copying machine is connected anew to a network, a setting is required in which a network address of a file server required for accessing the file server is stored in the newly connected digital copying machine. As a result, there was a problem that system modifications could not be accommodated with flexibility.